Michael Dorn played Lieutenant Commander Worf, chief of security on Star Trek: The Next Generation, who was later transferred to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to serve as operations officer. Worf was, in Star Trek mythos, the first Klingon to serve in Star Fleet, after his parents were killed in a Romulan attack and he was raised by a human family.

In his early years Dorn wanted to make music, and through his mid-20s he played and sang in a struggling rock band. He began his transition to actor with a tiny role in Rocky, as one of Apollo Creed's bodyguards. He played Officer Jed Turner on the last few seasons of CHiPs with Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox, and he was a regular on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives in the mid-1980s until he left for the Star Ship Enterprise.

There is a persistent tale told among Trek fans that Dorn landed the part of Worf by arriving at his audition in full Klingon garb, but the truth is more mundane: He was a fan of the original series, and knew how a Klingon should conduct himself, so Gene Roddenberry simply saw a Klingon when Dorn walked into the room. Dorn's career as Worf is the longest career in Star Trek TV and movies -- he played the role for seven seasons of ST:TNG, four seasons on Deep Space Nine, and in four Trek movies. He says he would like to don the prosthetic ridged forehead and play Worf in one more movie, "where Worf saves the galaxy and gets the cute chick."

Beyond Trek, Dorn hosted The World of Wonder on the Discovery Channel. He has done extensive cartoon work, voicing a Martian on Duck Dodgers, super-villain Kalibak on Superman, I. M. Weasel on I Am Weasel, and the narrator on Johnny Bravo, and voicing Worf in cartoons and video games. Dorn's hobby is flying what he calls his "star ship" -- an F-86 subsonic combat aircraft he bought used from the South African Air Force.